1940s

O

Charles and Marian O'Fallon Oldham Papers, 1913-2004 (S1112)
2 cubic feet, 38 folders, 179 photographs, 10 oversize items, 2 cassette tapes

 Finding Aid

This collection contains correspondence, photographs, court transcripts, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the lives of Civil Rights activists Charles and Marian Oldham. Charles Oldham was instrumental in organizing picket lines and demonstrations that helped open college admission for African Americans at Washington University in St. Louis in 1948. The Oldhams were also active members of the St. Louis chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and participated in the Jefferson Bank protests in 1963. Other subjects of interest include Marian O’Fallon Oldham’s tenure as a member of the University of Missouri’s Board of Curators and Charles Oldham’s time as the National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. The materials in this collection date from 1913 to 2004.

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Oliver and Oliver Law Firm Records, 1760-2004 (CG0010)
296 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The Oliver and Oliver Law Firm Papers contain case files and correspondence of the firm from the 1880s to 1980s. This collection also includes the genealogy of the Oliver and Watkins families, family correspondence, and civic involvements with the Boy Scouts of America, Rotary Club, Sons of the American Revolution, and Presbyterian Church. In addition, this collection contains material related to the Little River Drainage District, Oliver Land and Development Company, and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.

Oliver Family Papers, 1805-1977 (C3731)
18.1 cubic feet (1061 folders)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The papers of a prominent Cape Girardeau, Missouri, family include family and professional correspondence, patriotic organization materials, legal firm records, family financial and legal records, speeches and writings, genealogical materials, information on Missouri State Normal School and First Presbyterian Church of Cape Girardeau, photographs, and miscellany.

John W. Oliver Papers, 1936-1990 (K0751)
25 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Speeches, writings, correspondence, photographs, and personal files of Oliver, Senior U.S. District Judge of Western Missouri. Also personal papers of his wife, Gertrude Field Oliver (1916- ).

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Edna McElhiney Olson Photograph Collection, 1880-1961 (P0170)
0.2 linear feet

Photos of St. Charles street scenes and historic houses.

Subjects

Philip G. Olson Papers, 1919-2006 (K1126)
10 c.f.

Olson is a retired University of Missouri-Kansas City professor in Sociology whose research focused on urban neighborhoods. Includes research materials, gathered by Olson, about neighborhoods in Kansas City, MO.

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Maurice L. Ommerman Papers, 1945 (K0851)
0.01 c.f.

Abstract of property, 4328 Virginia, Kansas City, MO.

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Helen Onson Papers, 1938-1994 (C4043)
0.65 cubic feet (14 folders, 1 oversize volume, 1 DVD)

 Finding Aid

The Helen Onson Papers contain photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, and a scrapbook documenting Onson’s career as a basketball player in the 1930s and 1940s. Also included are clippings and correspondence related to Helen Stephens and her Olympic Co-Eds traveling basketball team, and material on the Harlem Globetrotters and its founder, Abe Saperstein. The collection also includes a DVD with an interview of Onson discussing her basketball career and friendship with Olympian Helen Stephens.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis Records, 1939-2023 (S0062)
51 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis Records contains correspondence, programs, and financial materials relating to the history of opera in St. Louis from 1939, including the opera productions, metropolitan opera auditions, and the efforts to raise the public's interest in opera. 

Subjects

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Optimist International Records, 1919-2019 (S1244)
137 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The Optimist International Records contain board and convention meeting minutes, club files, publications, grant files, newspaper clippings, and photographs documenting the organization’s mission to promote the common good in communities, traditionally supporting youth through various programs. Materials of interest include files on individual Optimist Clubs throughout Missouri and the world, which include membership lists and club reports sent to Optimist International. The materials in this collection date from 1919-2019.

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Oral Histories of the Japanese American Community in St. Louis Collection, 1906-1988 (S0682)
7 cubic feet, 68 folders, 1134 photographs, 21 cassette tapes, 8 books, 6 scrapbooks

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The Oral Histories of the Japanese American Community in St. Louis Collection documents the experience of Japanese Americans relocation into internment camps and to what life was like for Japanese Americans post-relocation. It includes tapes and transcripts of the oral history interviews conducted as part of Herm Smith's documentation project, which began in 1984. Also included in the collection are the records of the St. Louis Chapter of the Japanese American Citizen League (JACL), which Smith collected during the project. The JACL materials date from the 1950s to the 1970s, and consist of newsletters, newspaper clippings, financial ledgers, meeting minutes, and correspondence, which document the group’s efforts to protect the civil rights of Japanese Americans.

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Order of the Eastern Star, Ruth Chapter No. 177, Joplin, Missouri Records, 1942 (R0997)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a booklet containing the bylaws of Ruth Chapter No. 177 of the Order of the Eastern Star at Joplin in Jasper County, Missouri. The bylaws were approved on July 22, 1942 by Worthy Grand Matron Hazel H. Reppart.

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Order of the White Shrine of Jerusalem, Pleiades White Shrine No. 1 Springfield, Missouri Records, 1939-1940 (R0491)
1 volume

 Finding Aid

This is a "Memory Book for Worthy High Priestess, Bessie Spencer, of Pleiades White Shrine
No. 1, arranged by Bertha Graham, Worthy Chaplain." The White Shrine of Jerusalem was an
affiliate of freemasonry. The membership consisted mostly of wives of Master Masons. This
volume covers activities of the Springfield chapter from March 1939 to April 1940.

Counties

Order of the White Shrine of Jerusalem, Pleiades White Shrine No. 1, Springfield, Missouri Shepherdess Guard Patrol Collection, 1947 (R0830)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is "Let's Give a Party," a guide to entertaining published by the Shepherdess Guard Patrol of Pleiades White Shrine No. 1 of the Order of the White Shrine of Jersualem at Springfield in Greene County, Missouri. Included are a photograph of the Patrol in regalia and historical summary and current roster.

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Oregon County Masonic Records, 1871-2018 (R1469)
3.25 cubic feet (58 folders, 10 photographs)

 Finding Aid

The Oregon County Masonic Records contain materials related to the Masonic lodges and Order of Eastern Star chapters in Thomasville and Alton, Missouri. The Woodside Masonic Lodge No. 387 and the Alton Masonic Lodge No. 255 were the only lodges in Oregon County, Missouri. These materials include meeting minutes, membership lists, financial records, bylaws, photographs, and membership petitions.

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William J. Orr Papers, 1899-1940 (R0857)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

These papers deal mostly with the conviction, appeal , and later the death of J. F. Kennedy, a train-robber. William J. Orr was an attorney for the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railway, and later the St. Louis-San Fransisco Railway, who prosecuted Kennedy in 1899. Also included is an obituary of Orr from the Springfield, Missouri News Leader.

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Osage River Resevoir Region, Missouri, Photograph Collection, 1891-1999 (P1129)

 Digitized Materials

An artifical collection of photographs of the counties surrounding Truman Resevoir and Lake of the Ozarks: Henry, St. Clair, Benton, Hickory, Morgan, Camden, and Miller counties.

Subjects

Joseph J. Oshiver Papers, 1933-2005 (K0596)
33 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Architectural drawings and other records for Kansas City architect Oshiver, as well as research and other materials relating to Sacred Structures, the Jewish Community in the Kansas City area, and other personal and professional activities.

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Mary Jane Pinson Ott Photograph Collection, 1863-1941 (P0731)
0.23 linear feet

Copy negatives of La Belle, MO, from La Belle's Historical Collection by Mary Jane Pinson Ott.

Subjects

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Otterville Presbyterian Church (Cooper County, Mo.) Records, 1849-1996 (C3951)
1 roll of microfilm

 Finding Aid

Records of the church consisting of record books containing minutes of meetings and church registers, and a church history. Includes similar records of the Stony Point Presbyterian Church, Morgan County, MO.

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Mayme Hanrahan Ousley Papers, 1889-1967 (R0173)
0.75 cubic foot (42 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Mayme Hanrahan Ousley Papers consists of correspondence and miscellaneous papers of a civic leader and mayor of St. James in Phelps County, Missouri. She was the first woman to be elected to the mayoralty of a city in Missouri. The papers include material regarding city business, her position on the board of Missouri State Training Schools, and her activities with the Rebekah Lodge (I.O.O.F.).

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Richard Cleghorn Overton Address, 1944 (C0735)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

"Railroad Records and Local History," a talk given on 6 November 1944 in Harrisburg, PA, before the American Association for State and Local History. The effect of railroads on the history of Harrisburg, giving sources for railroad history.

Stanley Owen Postcard Collection, 1905-1948 (P0436)
1 folder

Postcards of Boone County: Central Dairy, Miller Shoe Co, Wigwam Café, Wabash Railroad Depot, First Christian Church, and Hinkson Creek.

Subjects

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Herbert A. Owens Papers, 1880s-1940s (CA5977)
4 folders

Tax receipts, abstracts, financial records, insurance papers, and business correspondence of a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri.

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Ozark Association of Primitive Baptists Records, 1904-1941 (R0995)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

These are published minutes of annual sessions of the Ozark Association of Primitive Baptists, which consisted of member congretaitions in Dallas, Greene, Polk, Webster, and Wright Counties in Missouri. Minutes are available for meetigns in 1904, 1906-1910, 1913-1915, 1917-1924, and 1941.

Ozark Empire Fair Collection, 1947-1971 (R0809)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

These are two programs and three premium lists for the annual Ozark Empire Fair, held at Springfield in Greene County, Missouri, on August 9-15, 1947, August 11-17, 1951, August 11-19, 1964, August 7-13, 1969, and August 11-18, 1971.

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Ozark Playgrounds Association Collection, 1929-1955 (R0854)
0.2 cubic foot (2 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Ozark Playgrounds Association Records contains booklets and pamphlets published by the Ozark Playgrounds Association to promote the "Playgrounds of the Ozarks," encompassing the Ozarks regions in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The booklets include geographical listings, maps, and lists of restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions.

Ozark Prairie Presbyterian Church (Lawrence County, Mo.) Records, 1879-1954 (C3050)
1 roll of microfilm

 Finding Aid

Volume one contains minutes of the monthly church business sessions which consist mainly of the names of those present or absent, the current pastor, new members, departing members, and presbytery delegates. Volume two provides a comprehensive record of the pastors, elders, deacons, communicants or members, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and Sunday School statistics.

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Ozark Summit Exposition Collection, 1947 (R0889)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

This is a booklet for the Ozark Summit Exposition, which was held at Mansfield in Wright County, Missouri, from July 30 to August 2, 1947.

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Ozarks Folksongs Collection, 1919-1957 (C3774)
3.1 cubic feet

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Original copy of the four volumes published by SHS, 1946-1950. Includes photographs used in the publication and a typescript of Chapter XIV, "Unprintable Songs," left out of the printed version. In addition there are two volumes entitled "Unprintable' Songs From the Ozarks" which were sold to the Society in 1956, but without publication rights.

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P.E.O. Reciprocity Group of Greater Kansas City Records, 1916-1995 (K0604)
3 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Organizational records of a women's educational and philanthropic club including minutes, a history of P.E.O., lists of presidents and officers, membership directories, state convention programs, and slides and program notes of Cottey College.

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P.E.O. Sisterhood, Missouri State Chapter Records, 1890-2010 (CA5409)
9.8 cubic feet, 1 oversize volume, 2 oversize items

 Finding Aid

The records of the organization include publications, chapter histories, record books, scrapbooks, directories, yearbooks, photographs, membership records, financial records, convention materials, and miscellaneous material.

Regina Entin Pachter Papers, 1946-2006 (K1142)
3 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Pachter was owner with her husband, Meyer Pachter of the Pachter Garment Company. she was also a talent pianist who performed widely. Includes correspondence, clippings, photographs, programs, scripts, and sheet music pertaining to Pachter's involvement in various Kansas City Jewish organizations.

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Florence Goldfinger Pack Collection, 1933, 1943, 1988, no date (K1425)
0.12 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

The Florence Goldfinger Pack Collection contains photographs and clippings concerning Florence Pack, dating from 1933 to 1988. The collection contains a mixture of dated and undated materials, with mediums ranging from newspaper clippings to photographs. Many of the items are school related.

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Hazel Call Page Papers, 1938-1981 (K0097)
0.5 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Mrs. Page had been supervisor of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) Statewide Library Project in Missouri. Included are records of the administration of the WPA Library Project and those related to Mrs. Page's book on that subject.

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Ernest Jesse Palmer Papers, 1891-1962 (C3405)
7.0 cubic feet (499 folders)

 Finding Aid

The papers of Ernest Jesse Palmer contain correspondence between Palmer and his associates in fields of botany, geology, and archaeology. Most of collection deals with identification of plant species, especially the hawthorn (Crataegus). Also included is correspondence with his family in Webb City, Missouri, and W.D. Rush, a life-long friend.

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Vincent and Lucie Palmer Papers, 1927-1987 (S0817)
15 cubic feet, 137 folders, 32 film reels, 257 photographs

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The collection contains personal and business correspondence, receipts, newspaper clippings, 16mm films, and personal notes regarding lectures and films documenting Vincent and Lucie Palmer's career as explorers and underwater adventures.

Palmer-Driggs Family Photographs, 1867-1949 (P0635)
23 photographs

Photos of members of the Rust, Driggs, Osborn, Palmer, Snyder, and Blair families.

Palmore Chapel Records, 1894-1976 (R0066)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The Palmore Chapel Records contain a typescript of records for the Palmore Chapel in Bollinger County, Missouri. The records include lists of pastors, members, baptisms, marriages, and deaths.

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Lucille Papendick Collection, 1912-1967 (S0015)
0.25 cubic foot, 8 folders

 Finding Aid

The Lucille Papendick promoted art and cultural education programs throughout her life and after her death through a fund she set up to support cultural, arts, and education organizations and the community. The collection contains programs from concerts, plays, recitals, and dance programs in St. Louis by visiting performers at theatres throughout the St. Louis area.

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Cowan Family Papers, 1855-2013 (SP0007)
1 cubic foot (18 folders)

 Finding Aid

The Cowan Family Papers contain correspondence and financial records pertaining to Frank Cowan and his property in Barton County, Missouri. Other materials include documents and photographs relating to the history of the Golden City High School.        

Fred and Ora Pearl Paradis Collection, 1887-1947 (K1388)
0.05 cubic foot (4 folders, 23 photographs)

 Finding Aid

The Fred and Ora Pearl Paradis Collection contains materials related to Fred and Ora Pearl Paradis, their family, and their friends, which includes a ledger, postcard, certificate, and photographs.

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Judith Katz Parelman Papers, 1920-2007 (K0759)
1 c.f.

 Digitized Materials

Parelman was an educator, youth director, and administrator. Includes event programs, newspaper clippings, photographs, and resumes often pertaining to Congregation Beth Shalom.

Counties

Paris Covered Bridge (Paris, Mo.) Photograph, c. 1948 (C0804)
0.02 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

Photograph of a covered bridge located at the city limits of Paris, Monroe County, Missouri.

Subjects

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Guy Brasfield Park Papers, 1894-1951 (C0008)
28.2 cubic feet (2,341 folders)

 Finding Aid

Official and personal correspondence and papers of Guy B. Park, Democratic governor of Missouri from 1933 to 1937. Also includes his work as an attorney for the Chicago Great Western Railroad Company, 1933-1946, as well as some personal papers of Eleanora Park.

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Parker and Watts Circus Records, 1934-1949 (C2307)
26.9 cubic feet (2292 folders, 15 volumes)

 Finding Aid

Records of a circus from the time of purchase through the time of sale and final accounting. Collection contains general business accounts and records, employee and general correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, and photographs.

Della Fleming Parker Papers, 1905-1965 (K0929)
0.2 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Playbills and programs (some with autographs) from Kansas City theaters and musical venues. Also is a World War II ration book and newspaper clippings.

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Gordon R. "Parky" Parkinson Papers, 1929-1988 (K0506)
0.3 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Papers of Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight Superintendent. Includes histories of TWA, speeches and manuscripts by employees, policy and procedure information, clippings and photographs.

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Parkville Presbyterian Church Records, 1845-1981 (K0134)
4 MR

 Finding Aid

Organizational records of the Church in Parkville, MO, one of the oldest congregations in the Greater Kansas City area. Consists of Session Minutes as well as scattered reports of committees, financial material and documents for the Church; Church Rolls; Correspondence; and Scrapbooks.

Subjects

Counties

William E. Parmenter Papers, 1944-1946 (R1334)
(1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The photocopied journal is the writings of William ""Ted"" E. Parmenter from May 1944 to January 1946 during his tour of duty in the United States Navy.